Stuart Broad congratulates Tim Bresnan after victory in the second npower Test match between England and India (Pic: Getty Images)

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ENGLAND systematically bullied and battered a wilting India into ­submission on their march to Test cricket’s summit.

A 2-0 lead in the npower series was secured with a 319-run win at Trent Bridge, but because of the way they did it, the margin of victory felt much bigger.

England came from behind to dominate their opponents, and by the time man-of-the-match Stuart Broad took the final wicket, they were so far in front India would have had to ask for directions to find them.

Broad was one of three or four England men who could have won the star prize, among them Tim Bresnan, who collected his first five-fer in Test cricket to go with his second-innings 90.

As it was, the only gongs the team are interested in are the Pataudi Trophy, which will be theirs by the end of the series, and most likely the World No.1 crown, which they surely deserve.

At Lord’s, England were always in front, but here they had to battle their way back into the match.

Skipper Andrew Strauss said: “It was an outstanding fightback from 80 for 6 and we got what we deserved at the end. There have been a couple of instances where players have stood up to be counted – and this was another one.”

It is hard to think that at one stage England had been 124-8, and at another India were 267-4 with a first-innings lead of 46, but Broad’s and Bresnan’s ­demolition bowling made sure India’s joy was short-lived.

From the moment Strauss and Alastair Cook walked out to bat in the second innings India have been anything but world beaters, in fact at times they have been nothing more than a ­shambles.

At the start of the fourth day, it was reasonable to expect some kind of fightback from India after a night’s sleep and a chance to show some pride.

There was none.

India were as listless, as ragged and as uninterested as any side can have been playing Test cricket on these shores.

It was reminiscent of the West Indies in the chill of 2009 when their captain Chris Gayle said he would not be bothered if he did not play Tests any more. It was men against boys as England turned the screw with the bat, Bresnan and Matt Prior leading the way, and they continued in that manner throughout the day’s play.

A target of 478 was always going to be too much for an India team with a soft underbelly together with a few soft bellies, while England’s chiselled bowling attack is lean, hungry and ruthless.

Rahul Dravid went first, edging Broad behind, but it was the dismissal of VVS Laxman that revealed how impossible their task of saving the game would be.

James Anderson angled one in to him with a bit of in-swing before it pitched and moved away to send his off stump cartwheeling out of the ground. It was bowling of the highest class.

From then on it was ­Yorkshire day or Bresnan day as it should now be termed, as the man from Pontefract picked off the India middle order one by one with aggressive fast bowling of which Fred Trueman himself would have been proud.

Abhinav Mukund got a snorter that landed straight in Strauss’s hands at slip before Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh were both bullied by short-pitched bowling that they should know how to play by now.

Watching Bresnan work them both over with blows to the fingers and the ribs before they called it a day was like watching the old West Indies pace attack go to work.

When MS Dhoni shouldered arms and was given out lbw first ball in an act of complete premeditation, India were 55-6 and in such disarray it was hard to understand how they had made it to No.1 in the first place.

Of course they have had their injuries and with Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Zaheer Khan all out of action they are weakened, but that is a part of sport and their next best has been woeful.

Sachin Tendulkar found some of his old verve with a classy 56 full of straight drives and clips, but even he has been scrambled by this England team and Anderson in particular who took his wicket for the seventh time when he too left a straight one that hit his pads.

A few swishes from the tail-enders merely prolonged the inevitable, but when it came it was no less sweet for England’s clinical heroes.